Viewpoints

State personal incomes fell back in Q3, reflecting the lessening of the extraordinary level of income support in Q2. Every state registered a decline, ranging from Georgia’s fractional 0.6% rate of loss to West Virginia’s 29.9%. In [...]

Data on federal tax receipts paints a grim picture of the state of the US economy. Weak tax receipts are sending a signal of economic distress. Congress needs to act with urgency and pass federal support legislation to help broad [...]

The world of finance changed in 2020. Investors nowadays are willing to pay more for growth and worry less about debt. Changes in investment philosophy and practices are directly related to the actions of the Federal Reserve. Fed [...]

"Actual" consumer price inflation is rising during the recession. That runs counter to the normal recessionary pattern when the combination of weak demand and excess capacity works to lessen inflationary pressures. The main source of [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's state coincident indexes in October were once again positive, but very mixed. 13 states saw increases of 10 percent or more in the three months since July, with Massachusetts once again way [...]

"Light at the end of the tunnel" is a phrase that will likely be deployed very frequently in the coming weeks. That's because of the news concerning several vaccines for COVID-19 which have clearly generated heightened hope that the [...]

State labor market data results in October were generally strong. 37 states had statistically significant drops in their unemployment rates from September to October, with Illinois’s 3.6 percentage-point drop being the largest. 8 [...]

Something missing. Federal withheld gross income tax receipts continue to post large declines, missing the rebound in employment and wage and salary income. One wonders if the weakness in gross federal income tax receipts is related [...]